JUVENILE PENAL INSTITUTIONS place a prisoner in a specially secured room under such conditions and the course of the placement and his supervision are comprehensively documented. By not carrying out CCTV monitoring, the prison system in Saxony already clearly and largely ensures respect for prisoners’ right to privacy and the protection of privacy. Prisoners can sometimes feel that the cameras are being used to keep tabs on them and can feel intimidated, and this increases their feeling of defencelessness and of being at the mercy of others. That is why, where it is necessary to monitor the prisoner (risk of self-harm or suicide), less invasive measures are applied, for instance either checks are carried out at specific intervals or the detainee is kept under constant observation. A prisoner being subjected to a coercive measure generally finds the situation extremely stressful. Prisoners need the conditions of detention and personal attention given to them to help them to feel secure and to regain trust. Since prisoners are placed in a specially secured room for only short periods of time, the staffing levels required to keep them under constant observation are feasible. In the past few years placement in the specially secured room has nearly always been ordered where the juvenile prisoner was at an acute and high risk of self-harm or suicide. Regis-Breitingen Juvenile Penal Institution only once in 2013 ordered that a juvenile prisoner be placed in a specially secured room. The threat potential requires personal supervision so that it is possible at all times to establish the prisoner’s state of mind. Supervising staff must be constantly available for the prisoner to talk to and so that they can act quickly in the event of danger. The duty of care requires that juvenile prisoners are not given the opportunity either to seriously harm themselves at times when they are unobserved, for example because of claiming to be using the toilet, or to damage wound care after it has been administered. That is why no exception can be made when it comes to visibility of the in-cell sanitary facilities. The important function which the specially secured room fulfils, namely suicide prevention and supervision of juvenile prisoners, would be considerably impaired if partial screens were to be installed in the specially secured room. However, there are plans to install a privacy screen on the window in the anteroom to the specially secured room which the person carrying out the Sitzwache uses to safeguard a certain degree of privacy when a juvenile goes to the toilet. Awareness of this issue has been raised in the Juvenile Penal Institution and it will ensure that prison staff do not observe juveniles detained in the specially secured room when they are going to the toilet until these screens have been installed. The communal shower rooms in the residential groups have no partitions between the individual showers. The Joint Commission recommends separating at least one shower off by means of a partition in order to protect privacy. Response: The Juvenile Penal Institution as well as all the other prisons will look into partitioning off individual showers in the communal shower rooms. These partitions have already been installed in some facilities (Chemnitz, Dresden and Zeithain prisons). It is expected that suitable partitions will have been installed in Regis-Breitingen Juvenile Penal Institution by late 2014. Point 9.2 of Regis-Breitingen Juvenile Penal Institution’s house rules lists institutions whose correspondence with the juvenile offenders is not monitored. The National Agency should also be included in this list. Response: Correspondence with the National Agency is not monitored. Section 54 (4) of the Act on Juvenile Justice of Saxony provides that monitoring of correspondence is not permitted. Regis-Breitingen Juvenile Penal Institution will adapt the house rules accordingly. 2.1.2 – Positive findings The conditions of detention in the Juvenile Penal Institution, which opened in 2007, are very good. The juveniles are accommodated in clearly arranged and friendly residential groups. Each residential group has a maximum of 11 juveniles, who share a common room and a kitchen. The rooms and furnishings were clean and in very good condition. Both the general prison services and the specialist services in the facility are well-equipped. The facility employs nine psychologists, eight teachers, 12 social service staff members and two art therapists. This level of staffing guarantees comprehensive supervision of the juveniles and the availability of numerous treatment measures. All the staff also undergo training in areas relevant to the enforcement of juvenile imprisonment. The Joint Commission was impressed by the wideranging measures taken to prevent violence amongst the juveniles. Detention cells are occupied by a maximum of two juveniles, and each residential group is assigned a dedicated group of staff members. The residential groups are differentiated according to numerous criteria (incl. experience of being in a penal institution, type of offence, behaviour in the institution, juveniles’ personal strengths). The facility attaches great importance to suicide prevention, and there are fixed standards and procedures for dealing with juveniles at risk of suicide. In addition, all members of staff undergo suicide prevention training at least once a year. Special mention should be made of the fact that the Juvenile Penal Institution does not use physical restraints, and the ordering of disciplinary detention is not permitted in the juvenile justice system in Saxony. The specially secured room is used in only a few exceptional cases (twice in 2013). 33